Hey, I'm starting Lure of the Expanse with my group tomorrow, and would be most appreciative of any advice specifically regarding this trio of adventures. The party's make-up, if it matters, consists of an Arch-Militant, an Ork Freebooter, a Kroot Mercenary, and a Rogue Trader.
DMing Lure of the Expanse, Seeking Advice
Yah that party make up does matter.
You are going to have to add in a lot of NPCs with brain power or heavily modify a lot of the content. Also with 2 xenos especially the ork you could run into difficulty with a lot of interactions (though not all). Combat will be a breeze though.
With a really one sided party like that knowing the material will be a must as the solutions they come up to problems will probably be of the violent nature even when the adventure may be expecting a diplomatic or lore inquiry based one.
llsoth said:
Yah that party make up does matter.
You are going to have to add in a lot of NPCs with brain power or heavily modify a lot of the content. Also with 2 xenos especially the ork you could run into difficulty with a lot of interactions (though not all). Combat will be a breeze though.
With a really one sided party like that knowing the material will be a must as the solutions they come up to problems will probably be of the violent nature even when the adventure may be expecting a diplomatic or lore inquiry based one.
Well, I made the Xenos players create back-up human characters - The Kroot has a mutant Void-Master, and the Ork has a rather seedy Navigator. I also have supplemental NPCs that I may employ when needed, but by and large I want the players to handle things themselves.
Faydra said:
Hey, I'm starting Lure of the Expanse with my group tomorrow, and would be most appreciative of any advice specifically regarding this trio of adventures. The party's make-up, if it matters, consists of an Arch-Militant, an Ork Freebooter, a Kroot Mercenary, and a Rogue Trader.
Here is my advice (for it´s worth: I never GMed or played the adventure!)
1) Prepare the reactions of the major players towards a group leaning on xenos
In my opinion, most of them will not give to much of it. After all, they are all RogueTraders. But Lord-Admiral Bastille could be a little "up-nosed" towards the pc. Which could lead to a penalty on social rules till the proved themselves somehow
2)The standoff at Quppa-Psi-12
Give them at least one group to battle with a perhaps some more jungle-encounters. Prepare for them to come down with a score of their own forces. With careers like that, they are obviously in it for the fighting. And as a GM, you should deliver it to them after "all those social-dealing" that happend before 
My advice would be Baron Djanko Scourge. But give him more slave-troops. So you pc can try to become clever..
3) Zayth; a world of war
Again, prepare for battle. Your pc might easily chose this ally... and were to do it if not THERE? Make sure, so, that their escapes there cost them some manpower and carry the point across the next. In that way, you can have them theire way but easily nudge them toward different options.
4) A Priest-Kings Ransom
Do not allow them to cower the Priest-King! Remember that he is fearless. If threatend he will make his point by telling them that they will be at war with all of his people and his successor by this point on. If they do so, throw waves of crazed citzens of them. They will storm them like true fanatics.
Hopefully, they will try something differen here. Prepae descriptions of desert, of hot and cold and emptiness. I would suggest to have some of there competitors already leaving the court with a smile as they arrive. Make sure the ship is on the other side of the planet, so they do not notice it right from the start. This way, they might think twice before attacking the priest-king. After all, the competitor might simply take the chance and attack them in this situation.
5) The Light of Terra
The pc will somehow try to takeover the ship. Prepare for this. Either you by preparing rules for that or by obstacles hindering them.
There was a great article here on what to do if they want to go to the forbidden planet. SEEK IT!
6) Land of the Sky-Father
i do not know how to keep this from being boring. FORUM! CONTRADICT ME!!
On the priest kings Ransom, Gregorius21778 said
4) A Priest-Kings Ransom
Do not allow them to cower the Priest-King! Remember that he is fearless. If threatend he will make his point by telling them that they will be at war with all of his people and his successor by this point on. If they do so, throw waves of crazed citzens of them. They will storm them like true fanatics.
My PCs did try and take the city and did indeed face waves of fanatics. Once they killed the priest king the waves continued until they made his son ruler and he stopped the suicidal frenzy with a single word. My PCs went prepared and their troops slaughtered many many locals but they got the message. the priest kings care not one wit for their subjects, are fearless and egotistical. They bought the son of the priest king with offers of exotic women for his harem, interesting drugs and fancy gewgaws to amuse him. He still ended up betraying them when they left.
Gribble_the_Munchkin said:
My PCs did try and take the city and did indeed face waves of fanatics. Once they killed the priest king the waves continued until they made his son ruler and he stopped the suicidal frenzy with a single word. My PCs went prepared and their troops slaughtered many many locals but they got the message. the priest kings care not one wit for their subjects, are fearless and egotistical. They bought the son of the priest king with offers of exotic women for his harem, interesting drugs and fancy gewgaws to amuse him. He still ended up betraying them when they left.
Gribble_the_Munchkin said:
On the priest kings Ransom, Gregorius21778 said
4) A Priest-Kings Ransom
Do not allow them to cower the Priest-King! Remember that he is fearless. If threatend he will make his point by telling them that they will be at war with all of his people and his successor by this point on. If they do so, throw waves of crazed citzens of them. They will storm them like true fanatics.
My PCs did try and take the city and did indeed face waves of fanatics. Once they killed the priest king the waves continued until they made his son ruler and he stopped the suicidal frenzy with a single word. My PCs went prepared and their troops slaughtered many many locals but they got the message. the priest kings care not one wit for their subjects, are fearless and egotistical. They bought the son of the priest king with offers of exotic women for his harem, interesting drugs and fancy gewgaws to amuse him. He still ended up betraying them when they left.
Gribble_the_Munchkin said:
My PCs did try and take the city and did indeed face waves of fanatics. Once they killed the priest king the waves continued until they made his son ruler and he stopped the suicidal frenzy with a single word. My PCs went prepared and their troops slaughtered many many locals but they got the message. the priest kings care not one wit for their subjects, are fearless and egotistical. They bought the son of the priest king with offers of exotic women for his harem, interesting drugs and fancy gewgaws to amuse him. He still ended up betraying them when they left.
My group ended up going for the trading, getting 2-3 shuttles full of the water, and then, after leaving, ordered an orbital bombardment on the city for heresy. They then proceeded to inform the Ecclesiarchy on Footfall as to the location of such a hive of heresy and blasphemy, and they sent a few ships there to obliterate the Priest Kings and bring the population the word of the Emperor.
Admittedly, about 70% of the population ended up having to die, but you can't make an omelette without breaking a few skulls! 
My players made an ally of the Priest King by slaughtering the missionaries in the dead of night, organised a trade route between the planet and Footfall, then continued on their quest to find the pearl. About a year later...
They've gone back there as part of the Rogue Trader's attempt to sieze control of Footfall, becoming a Legend of the Expanse in the process. They came up with a plan to construct a hollow crystal throne for the priest-king, filled with a core of promethium (Which they convinced the Priest-King was Water), rigged to a remote detonator designed by the ork-militant. If the king gets uppity, they blow him sky-high. So. They make their way in, the Kroot player leaps out of the guncutter on the way over the city as something of an insurance policy in case something goes wrong, sneaking into the palace.
The populace consider the party to be almost like demigods from their previous encounter, throwing garlands of desert flowers before their feet, offering sips of their Water, anything to show their love and admiration. Several of the smaller children attempt to clamber up onto the broad shoulders of the Voidmaster who had long since become trapped in a suit of alien power armour, generally getting in the way. The procession eventually ends within the palace, where the priest-king greets them and expresses pleasure at the tribute the party have paid him, immediately ordering that his current throne be discarded. They exchange pleasantries for a while before getting down to business, attempting to acquire a larger supply of the Water to expand their operations on Footfall, where the drink has become a favoured delicacy amongst the nobles. They haggle for a while, before the priest-king acquiesces, suggesting that they seal the deal with a deep draught of the Water.
In the previous encounter, two of the characters had drunk deeply of the water, whereas the Rogue Trader himself had managed to dispose of his without it touching his lips. Since then, the two had become obviously addicted, even getting into a fist-fight over the last urn aboard ship when they were stranded in the Warp once. The Rogue Trader looks down at the glass, looks back up, and simply says "No" before tipping it to one side, letting it all pour out on the floor. entire chamber is dead silent, but completely aghast at this desecration of the priest-king's generousity. The king himself slams a fist down on the armrest of his new throne and lashes his will out at the Rogue Trader, attempting to compel him to kneel down and lick the water off the tile. It's a close-fought battle of wills, but ultimately the Rogue Trader's refusal to brook any insult wins out, prompting him to hurl his goblet to the ground and draw his hammer. "I will not be controlled, you ignorant SAVAGE."
Priest-king's hands claw around the armrests, but his features slip once more into benign contempt as he surveys the rest of the group. "Perhaps not you, no. Your companion, however..." With a wave of his hand and a gentle mental nudge, the Seneschal has his rifle drawn and pointed at the Rogue Trader's head in an instant. Resisting the order to fire with a herculean force of will, he instead draws his daemonblade and uses the boundless rage within to break free of the control.
The Rogue trader steps forward, pointing an imaginary gun at the priest-king's head. "I've had enough of your parlour-tricks. Die." The Kroot has, by this time, managed to sneak into an upper window of the palace and lined up a perfect shot with his krootbow. Fires it full-auto, landing a perfect hit in the head. King's head becomes separated from his body, with one of the crossbow bolts impaled in the crystal of the throne. King's body slumps to the ground, spraying blood like a Kurosawa film.
Cue a desperate attempt to get their teleport homer set up before the thousands of enraged townsfolk swarm them. They had to hold out for fifteen rounds at the door, fighting them off. Started off at a +60 combat challenge, each round got harder to defend as more people crowded in/better equipped soldiers joined the fray. By the end, two of the three people holding the door were down to 0 wounds, an entire phalanx of soldiers was charging up the steps of the palace, and the Rogue Trader was preparing to hit the remote detonator on the throne, just to take as many of them out with him as he could.
As he teleports out, the Rogue Trader hits the detonator. Back on the bridge, their pictcaster has a lock on what was once the city, now little more than a smouldering glassed crater.
Then they went back down and hunted rock-golem creatures.
My PCs managed to first trick the Priest king by agreeing to kill the missionaries. They then resuced the missionaries and took them into orbit before travelling back down to watch the targetted lance strike destroy the missionaries settlement from the Priest Kings balcony. They struck a deal for water and then once they'd got it aboard their ship, landed the troops (accompanied by the hamer-swingin', prayer-chantin' missionaires) and led the charge to kill the priest king.
Most massacre and installation of the Priest kings son as monarch, they convert, by force the entire population to the worship of the Emperor, leaving a detachment of troops with the missionaries as a "cardinals guard". Eventually of course the young priest king got fed up with everyone worshipping the Emperor and not him and used his psychic control to forment rebellion. A civil war occurs, with the winning side being the missionaries and their troops and followers. However, with the death of the Priest king the cities wells dry up and the people begin to die of thirst. Other cities turn them away at spear point. They start to use extreme water preservation techniques (like less sophisticated Fremen). When the players return for more magic water, they are angered by the treachery of the priest king and the failure of the other priest kings to help the Emperors servants, so they evacuate the 5,000 odd remaining Imperial loyalists and then systematically spend a few weeks destroying every population centre on the planet with lance strikes leaving little but a blasted rock.
Thus soothed, they took the 5,000 refugees to an under populated forest world they have been harvesting and supply them with the basics for survival, starting a new imperial colony. This world rains a fair bit and the Desert dwelling folk rapidly come to view it as a paradise where the Emperor showers them with water on a regular basis as a reward for their faithfulness back on Vaporius.
All in all, a good deal for the Emperor!
Hi Faydra
(by the way: any resembles to a certain female from acient greek mythos going by the same name?)
as mentioned earlier, there was some really good concepts by some-one else on this forum on how to scare off players from the world at the center of "Processional of the Damned".
I did a little search and found it. Vandegraffe came up with a really nice idea. If you are into Yu´vath as a source of a central evil (I liked it!)
well in the group i run the RT refused to bid at the action cause loosing Profit Factor on a maybe return was unacceptable to him. so i kinda had to throw the adventure out the airlock. pretty annoying.
Cyric313 said:
well in the group i run the RT refused to bid at the action cause loosing Profit Factor on a maybe return was unacceptable to him. so i kinda had to throw the adventure out the airlock. pretty annoying.
Other Ways of Getting In
There is a chance that the players will throw a spanner in the works, whether through mischief or incompetence, and somehow fail to make a bid. If this happens, the GM will need to find a way of getting the story back on track. This could be done by engineering a ‘second chance’, whereby no more acceptable bids are forthcoming, but there is still one place at the Foretelling left to fill. In that case, have the guards call the Explorers back into the
Obsidian Emporial so they can try one last time. If things go really awry, it may be necessary to think up an entirely new way of getting the Explorers into
the Foretelling—the best way might be to explain the gravity of the situation to them, and have the players suggest how they will do so. If they have a good idea, work out the details with them and wing it!
I had this happen in one of my games, actually. Rogue Trader had nothing he wanted to trade, but decided he wanted in. Despite losing out in the initial bid and storming off in a huff, the Intercessor sent agents after him, explaining that a tenth bidder had not been found. After some discussion between the group, the Rogue Trader snarled that he would stake whatever he had left at home without knowing or expecting it. Unfortunately for the departed Trader, his future heir was in the process of being quite busily and messily created later that night...
Problem is that the rogue trader doesnt want to spend anything for a chance to maybe get something back.. he's very conservative and doesnt want to take risks, he also hates xenos so wants nothing to do with anything xenos related.
imho he is more of a trader and not a rogue..
You need to spend money to make money. 
Also, what xeno items? As far as the character should know at this point there is no xeno involvement in the Pearl. Kudos to the player for sticking to his character concept in the face of forcing you to abandon the endeavour and thus face the inevitable falling of rocks, but Warrants don't really belong in the hands of cautious people.
Cyric313 said:
well in the group i run the RT refused to bid at the action cause loosing Profit Factor on a maybe return was unacceptable to him. so i kinda had to throw the adventure out the airlock. pretty annoying.
My group also ran afoul of the 5+ PF buy in for the adventure. I can't say I blame them actually. You spend all this time hinting that the bid need not be valuable just inventive and unique, only to have to stipulate 5 PF min. One of my many, many, many problems with lure of the expanse:(
Here is how it went down for my group.
First bid was the skull, weapons, and throne of a powerful ork warboss they had defeated in the previous endevour. Rejected due to not being valuable enough.
Second bid was a egarian halo device. Rejected for same reason.
They were then like whats going on? So I had to stipulate a 5 PF minimum.
So the RT asked so you want us to pony up 5 PF to be one of ten RT to be given the location of a resource rich world. That we will then have to compete for with those other 9 RT and any others who happen to want in on the action. That could easily turn into a fortune destroying war of attrition over this resource world. That will rouse the eldar to murderous anger. That is an endevour only worth a +2 PF. The RT and others in the group spent some time coming up why this was a bad idea and there were many more than I listed here.
I was like well... yes.
They laughed at me (literally and I don't blame them). Their next bid was their pocket lint.
Luckily I had anticipated trouble on this point (though not to quite this extent) so after they were escorted out by the guards they were approached by the eldar (who they had dealt with favorably in the past). The eldar hired them to help them stop the other RT from despoiling the maiden world. The reward was to be 2 PF and the location of the Light of Terra (which is another teeth grinding moment in lure of the expanse, they give the players a BATTLESHIP as part of a minor SIDE ADVENTURE... ????) which was not going to be located near one of the temples in any case.
So I had to basically flip the adventure on its head to get my players into it.
My thought with regards to the 5 PF buy in was that the logical response would be to try to get the information out of a rival rogue trader or a member of his entourage. A large bribe or a kidnapping followed by interrogation might do the trick. The Mind Probe psyker power would be helpful. Or maybe they could hide a bug on someone. Imaginative players could no doubt come up with more schemes.
They could also try to follow their rivals through the warp with the Tracks in the Stars navigator power. If a PC navigator doesn't have it, it may still be possible to find an NPC navigator with the right skill.
well i solved it by having a misjump lead to Quppa Psi 12.
funny thing is that the group doesnt have a navigator and when i rolled the jump where they wanted to go they went off course and i didnt cheat with the dice either, also even more was when the RT wanted to leave the system after meeting the Stryxis i rolled a 97 on the locate Astronomican and failed the navigation warp test after so that they got stuck there.
so now they are stuck on the planet also after their shuttle crashed with no help from me.
hopefully i will be able to coax them back on track.
I haven't run the adventure yet, but I am preparing it for my group. I don't really like the idea of a 5 PF buy in being mandatory, so I am using my perogative as the GM and in my mind it is either a unigue and valuable gift that no-one else could match (which at this point the group has had a couple options for that) or if they can't come up with anything they can use the 5 PF buy-in. This just represents some costly venture or resource that they are giving up. I figure I am the final decision maker and I don't think changing that will really alter the adventure too much.
...but that's just me and i've always seen pre-mades as guidelines more than strict rules.
mwagner626 said:
I haven't run the adventure yet, but I am preparing it for my group. I don't really like the idea of a 5 PF buy in being mandatory, so I am using my perogative as the GM and in my mind it is either a unigue and valuable gift that no-one else could match (which at this point the group has had a couple options for that) or if they can't come up with anything they can use the 5 PF buy-in. This just represents some costly venture or resource that they are giving up. I figure I am the final decision maker and I don't think changing that will really alter the adventure too much.
...but that's just me and i've always seen pre-mades as guidelines more than strict rules.
Could you tell what items could be valuble enough that you could win the bid?
Whatever the GM thinks that the Witches would think is interesting and unique? The Daemonette's toenail that Madame Charlabelle submitted for auction is unique because a daemon's body is returned to the Warp upon it's death, whereas the 30,000 Sabre-wolf pelts submitted by one of the random early bidders was rejected because it's common, albeit somewhat consuming to acquire. The 10,000 blind slaves represents a determined effort to acquire something unique and yet functionally useless.
My players submitted the contents of the 13th hold of their vessel, the Yu'Vath-possessed Navigator from the previous crew. It was submitted, provided the Explorers could bring it to the Witches, alive and unsubdued. Personally, I ignored the 5 Profit Factor requirement.
My players have found the last survivors of an ancient genetically 'perfect' group of humans that were cryofrozen, in a long lost vessel floating in the void. They also have the halo worm from the Forbidden Bounty adventure. Either of these would be unique enough and valuable enough to be accepted by the witches.
Like Errant said if you look at the other examples you can see what it is the witches are looking for. The 5 PF is more of a just-in-case-the-explorers-aren't-creative catch.
I was curious as to what my players would attempt to offer. In the end they offered the Halo device that they'd acquired from the intro adventure and which i'd totally forgotten about. This was a win win for them as they are quite puritanical and would not have used or even sold such a deadly artifact under most circumstances.